It has long been known that a treatment of tooth surfaces with fluorides, such as sodium monofluorophosphate, has a caries inhibiting effect. To obtain this effect, fluoride compounds have been incorporated into toothpastes. However, a dentifrice containing a soluble fluoride and calcium carbonate or calcium phosphates looses an appreciable amount of fluorine in the composition upon aging. It has been found that the calcium containing compounds remove the soluble fluoride from the composition by forming insoluble and inactive calcium fluoride thereby inhibiting the anticariogenic effect of the fluoride.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide dentifrice compositions containing fluorides and calcium containing abrasives having improved levels of soluble fluoride availability.